The Cycle of the Year as Breathing-Process of the Earth

Schmidt Number: S-5216

On-line since: 11th April, 2004

I

At the times when the great festivals of the year approach our souls,
it is good ever and again to bring before our inner eye, out of
spiritual cosmic connections, the meaning of the festival year. And I
should like to do this by setting before you how, under the influence
of spiritual insights and over long ages, the festival year has
gradually evolved out of the whole constitution of the Earth. If we
look at the Earth and its events from such an aspect, we must only
make clear that we cannot conceive the Earth as a mere conglomeration
of minerals and rocks, as is done by modern mineralogy and geology,
but we must rather regard it as a living, ensouled organism, which
brings forth the plants, the animals and the physical being of man out
of its own inner forces. Then what I shall now set forth will be in
agreement.

You know that the Earth, with all the beings belonging to it 
consider only the plant covering of the Earth  completely
changes its aspect in the course of the year, changes everything with
which it looks out into cosmic space as with its physiognomy, so to
speak. After a year the Earth has always arrived again at about the
same point, as to its appearance, at which it stood a year before. You
need only to think how almost everything related to weather
conditions, to the budding of plants, to the appearance of animal
creatures  how with regard to all this the Earth has arrived
again in this March, 1923, at about the same point of development at
which it stood in March of the year 1922.

Today we intend to consider this cycle of the Earth as a kind of
mighty breathing which the Earth carries out in relation to the
surrounding cosmos. We can consider still other processes which take
place on the Earth and around it as breathing processes of a sort. We
can even speak of a daily breathing of the Earth. But today we
want to place before our inner eye the yearly cycle, in the large, as
a mighty breathing process of the Earth, in which of course it is not
air that is breathed in and out, but rather those forces which are at
work for example in vegetation, those forces which push the plants out
of the Earth in spring, and which withdraw again into the Earth in
fall, letting the green plants fade and finally paralyzing plant
growth.

To repeat, it is not a breathing of air of which we speak, but the
in-and-out-breathing of forces, of which we can get a partial
idea if we notice the plant-growth during the course of the year. We
intend today to bring this annual breathing process of the Earth
before our souls.

Let us first look at the Earth at the time of the winter solstice, in
the last third of December, according to our present reckoning. At
this time we may compare the Earth's breathing with the lung-breathing
of a man when he has inhaled a breath of air and is working on it in
himself, that is, when he is holding his breath within him. In the
same way, the Earth has within it those forces which I spoke of as
being inhaled and exhaled. At the end of December it is holding these
forces. And what is happening then with the Earth I can sketch for you
schematically in the following way:

Let us think of this (red) as representing the Earth. We can of
course only consider one part of the Earth in connection with this
breathing. We shall consider that part in which we ourselves dwell;
the conditions are of course reversed on the opposite side of the
Earth. We must picture (vorstellen) the breathing of the Earth
in such a way that in one region there is out-breathing, and in the
opposite region in-breathing; but this we need not consider today.

Let us picture in our minds the season of December. Let us imagine
what I am drawing here in yellow to be the held breath in our region.
At the end of December the Earth has fully in-breathed and is holding
in herself the forces of which I just spoke. She has entirely sucked
in her soul element, for the forces of which I have spoken are the
soul element of the Earth. She has drawn it completely in, just as a
man who has inhaled holds the air entirely in himself.

This is the time at which with good reason the birth of Jesus has been
set, because Jesus is thus born out of an Earth force which contains
the entire soul element of the Earth within it. At the time of the
Mystery of Golgotha the initiates who were still worthy of the ancient
initiation connected a deep meaning with the view which placed the
birth of Jesus just at this point of the earthly in-breathing and
holding of the breath.

These initiates said something like the following: In the
ancient days, when our places of initiation stood within the Chaldean
and Egyptian cultures, when a wish arose to know what that Being who
represents the lofty Sun-Being had to say to earthly humanity, an idea
of his message was formed, not by looking at the sunlight directly in
all its spirituality, but rather by observing the way in which the
sunlight was rayed back from the Moon. And when the gaze was
turned toward the Moon, they saw  with the help of clairvoyant
vision  along with the flooding moonlight the manifestation of
the Spirit of the Universe. And the meaning of this manifestation was
realized in a more external way when they regarded the constellation
of the Moon in relation to the planets and fixed stars.

In this way the position of the stars, especially in relation to the
down-streaming moonlight, was observed during the night hours in the
Chaldean, and still more in the Egyptian mysteries. Just as a man now
reads the meaning of letters on a sheet of paper, in those times
meaning was read in the relation of Aries, or of Taurus, of Venus, or
of the Sun itself, to the streaming moonlight. From the way in which
the constellations and the stars stood in relation to one another,
especially from the way they were oriented with the moonlight, there
was read what the heavens had to say to the Earth. All this was put
into words. And according to the meaning of what was thus put into
words, the ancient initiates sought what that Being Who was later
called the Christ had to say to earthly man. They sought to interpret
what was conveyed by the stars in their relation to the Moon and apply
it to the earthly life.

But now as the Mystery of Golgotha drew near, the whole nature of the
Mysteries passed through what I might call a great soul-spiritual
metamorphosis. Then the oldest of the initiates said to their pupils:
A time is at hand when the stellar constellations must no longer
be related to the flooding moonlight. The universe will speak
differently to earthly man in the future. The light of the Sun must be
observed directly. The spiritual gaze of the knower must be turned
away from the revelations of the Moon and toward the revelations of
the Sun.

The teachings given in the Mysteries made a profound impression upon
those men who at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha still ranked as
initiates of the old order. And it was from this point of view that
these initiates formed their judgment of the Mystery of Golgotha. But
at the same time they said, Some Earth event must enter in,
which can bring about this transition from a lunar to a solar
orientation.  It was in this way that the cosmic
significance of the birth of Jesus dawned on them.

They saw the birth of Jesus as something which gave the impulse out of
the very Earth itself, no longer to regard the Moon as the regent, so
to speak, of celestial phenomena, but rather the Sun itself.
The event that brings this about, so they said to
themselves, must be of an extraordinary kind. And the
nature of this extraordinary event yielded its secret to them through
the following: They began to understand the inner meaning of the Earth
occurrence that took place in the last third of December, the
occurrence which we now call Christmas. They said to themselves:
Everything must now be related to the Sun.  But the
Sun can exert its power on the Earth only when the Earth has exhaled
its forces. At Christmas time it has breathed them in; its breath is
being held. If Jesus is born at this time, He is born at a time when
the Earth is in a certain way not speaking with the heavens, a time
when the Earth with its being has entirely withdrawn into itself.
Jesus is born, then, at a time when the Earth is rolling along through
cosmic space quite alone, when it is not sending out its breath to be
welled and woven through by the force of the Sun, by the light of the
Sun. At this time the Earth has not offered its soul-being to the
cosmos; it has withdrawn its soul being into itself, has sucked it in.
Jesus is born on the Earth at a time when the Earth is alone with
itself, is isolated as it were from the cosmos.

Try to feel for yourselves the cosmic perceiving-feeling
(Empfinden) which lies at the basis of such a way of
calculating!

Now let us follow the Earth further in its yearly course. Let us
follow it up to the time in which we are just now, about the time of
the spring equinox, the end of March. Then we shall have to picture
the situation in this way:

The Earth (red) has just breathed out; the soul is still half
within the Earth, but the Earth has breathed it out; the streaming
soul-forces are pouring out into the cosmos. Whereas since December,
the force of the Christ Impulse has been intimately bound up with the
Earth, with the soul-element of the Earth, we find that now this
Christ Impulse, together with the outward-streaming soul element, is
beginning to radiate around the Earth (arrows). This which here
as Christ-permeated Earth-soul is flowing out into spiritual cosmic
space, must be met now by the force of the sunlight itself. And the
mental picture arises: While in December the Christ withdrew the
Earth-soul element into the interior of the Earth, in order to be
insulated from cosmic influences, now with the out-breathing of the
Earth, He begins to let His forces breathe out, to extend them to
receive the forces of the Sun (das Sonnenhafte) which radiate
toward Him. And our schematic drawing will be correct if we represent
the Sun force (yellow) as uniting with the Christ force
radiating from the Earth. The Christ begins to work together with the
Sun forces at Easter time; hence Easter falls at the time of the
out-breathing of the Earth. But what happens then must not be related
to the light flowing back from the Moon; it must be related to the
Sun.

This is the origin of fixing the time of Easter as the first Sunday
after the full moon following the spring equinox. And anyone who is
sensitive to such things would have to say to himself with regard to
the Easter time: If I have united myself with the Christ force,
my soul also streams out into cosmic spaces along with the
out-breathing force of the Earth-soul, and receives the Sun force,
which the Christ now brings to human souls from the Earth,
whereas before the Mystery of Golgotha He brought it to them from
the cosmos.

But here something else enters in. When festivals were established in
those times in which whatever was important on Earth was referred to
the flooding moonlight, it was done purely in accordance with what
could be observed in space: how the Moon stood in relation to the
stars. The intent of the Logos, which had been written into space by
Him, was thus deciphered in order to determine the festivals. But if
you consider the fixing of the Easter festival as we have it now, you
will see that it has been established according to space only up to a
certain point, that point at which we speak of the full moon after the
beginning of spring. Thus far everything is spatial, but we depart
from space when we refer to the Sunday after the spring full
moon. This Sunday is determined, not spatially, but according to how
it stands in the cycle of the year, how it stands in the cycle of the
weekdays, where following Saturday come Sunday, Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and again Saturday, always in periodical
succession. We step out of space here, when we cross over from the
spatial setting of the Moon constellation to the purely temporal
course in the yearly cycle of Sundays.

Thus it was possible still in the old mysteries to perceive in feeling
that the fixing of the festivals had formerly been related to cosmic
space but that with the Mystery of Golgotha there was a progression
out of cosmic space into time, which itself was no longer related to
cosmic space. What related to the spirit was as it were torn away from
the purely spatial. This was a powerful jolt of mankind
toward the spirit.

If we carry further our view of the Earth's breathing process during
the course of the year, we find the Earth in yet a third condition in
June. At this place which we are observing, the Earth has completely
exhaled. The entire soul-element of the Earth has been poured forth
into cosmic space; it is yielded up to cosmic space and is saturating
itself with the forces of the Sun and the stars. The Christ, Who is
joined with this soul-element of the Earth, now unites His force also
with the forces of the stars and the Sun, surging there in the
Earth-soul that is given over to the cosmic All. It is St. John's Day
 Mid-summer. The Earth has fully out-breathed. In her outer
physiognomy, with which she looks out into the universe, she reveals
not her own inherent force, as she did at the time of the winter
solstice; instead, the Earth reveals on her surface the reflected
forces of the stars, of the Sun, of all that is in the cosmos outside
her.

The old initiates, particularly those in the northern regions of
Europe, felt most livingly the inner meaning and spirit of this time
that is our June. At this time they felt their own souls, along with
the Earth soul, given over to the cosmic expanses. They felt
themselves to be living, not within the earthly realm, but rather in
the cosmic distances. Indeed they said the following to themselves:
We live with our soul in the cosmic expanses. We live with the
Sun, we live with the stars. And when we direct our gaze back upon the
Earth, which has filled herself with springing and sprouting plants,
which has brought forth animals of all kinds, then we see in the
springing and sprouting plants, in the gleaming, unfolding colors of
the flowers; we see in the insects flitting and creeping hither and
yon, in the birds with their multicolored feathers traversing the air;
we see gleam back from the Earth as though mirrored, what we take up
into our souls just when we abandon the Earth and unite ourselves with
the out-flowing breath of the Earth in order to live with the cosmos
rather than with the Earth. What appears in world space springing and
sprouting from the Earth in thousandfold colors  this is of the
same nature. Only it is a reflection, a raying-back force, whereas we
bear in our human souls the original force itself.

This was the feeling of those men who were inspired out of the Mystery
places, those men who especially understood the festival of the summer
solstice; and so we see the St. John's festival placed at the time of
the Earth's great out-breathing into the cosmos.

If we follow this breathing-process still further we come finally to
the stage that makes its entry at the end of September. The
out-breathed forces begin their return movement; the Earth begins once
more to inhale. The soul of the Earth which was poured out into the
cosmos now draws back into the interior of the Earth again. Human
souls perceive this in-breathing of the Earth-soul element, either in
their subconscious or in their clairvoyant impressions, as processes
of their own souls. Those men who were inspired by initiation
knowledge of these things could say to themselves at the end of
September: What the cosmos has given us and what has united
itself with our soul force through the Christ Impulse  this we
now allow to flow back into the earthly realm, into that earthly
sphere which throughout the summer has served only as a reflection, as
a kind of mirror in relation to the extraterrestrial cosmos.

But a mirror has the property of not permitting anything that is in
front of it to pass through it. Because the Earth is a mirror of the
cosmos in the summer, it is also opaque in its inner nature,
impermeable by cosmic influences and therefore, during the summer
time, impermeable by the Christ Impulse. (See drawing). At this
time the Christ Impulse has to live in the exhaled breath. The
Ahrimanic forces, however, establish themselves firmly in this Earth
which has become impervious to the Christ Impulse. And when the human
being returns once more with the forces which he has taken up into his
own soul through the Earth's out-breathing  including the forces
of the Christ  he plunges into an Earth which has been
ahrimanized.

However, it is so, that in the present cycle of Earth evolution 
since the last third of the nineteenth century  from spiritual
heights there comes to the aid of the descending human soul the force
of Michael, who, while the Earth's breath is flowing back into the
Earth itself, contends with the Dragon, Ahriman.

This was already foreseen prophetically by those in the ancient
Mysteries who understood the course of the year spiritually. They knew
that for their time the Mystery had not yet approached which would
reveal Michael coming to the help of descending human souls. But they
knew that when the souls should have been reborn again and again, this
Michael force would enter, would come to the aid of earthly human
souls. This was the meaning they saw in the cycle of the year.

Hence it is out of ancient wisdom that you will find written in the
calendar on September 29, a few days after the fall equinox 
Michael's Day, Michaelmas. And Michaelmas is for simple country people
an exceedingly important time. But because of its position in the
cycle of the year, Michaelmas is an important time also for those who
want to grasp the whole significance of our present earth epoch. If we
want to take our place in the present time with the right
consciousness, we need to understand that in the last third of the
nineteenth century the Michael force took up the struggle with the
Dragon, with the Ahrimanic powers, in just the way necessitated by our
time. And we must insert ourselves into this intention of earthly and
human evolution by taking part in the right way with our own
consciousness in this cosmic-spiritual battle.*

* This is the first occasion on which Rudolf Steiner spoke in a
broader sense of the importance of celebrating Michaelmas today. His
first allusion to the subject at all had been in a brief reference
three months earlier. (The Spiritual Communion of Mankind,
December 24, 1922)

We may say that up until now Michaelmas has been a festival for
peasants  you know the sense in which I use the word  a
festival for simple folk. But once the significance of the yearly
breathing process that takes place between the Earth and the cosmos is
recognized, Michaelmas will be more and more called upon to form a
very real supplement to Easter. For mankind, who will understand
earthly life again also in a spiritual sense, will eventually have to
think in this way.

While the summer out-breathing occurred, the Earth was ahrimanized.
Woe if Jesus had been born into this ahrimanized Earth! Before the
cycle is completed again and December approaches, which brings about
the birth of the Christ Impulse in the ensouled Earth, the Earth must
be purified by spiritual forces, from the Dragon, from the Ahrimanic
forces. And the purifying force of Michael, which subdues the evil
Ahrimanic forces, must unite itself, from September into December,
with the in-flowing earth breath, so that the Christmas festival may
approach in the right way, and the birth of the Christ Impulse take
place in the right way, so that it will then mature up until the
beginning of the out-breathing at Easter time.

We can therefore say: At Christmas time the Earth has drawn its
soul-element into itself, the Earth has taken its soul-being into
itself in the great yearly respiration. In this Earth-soul element
which has been drawn into the Earth, the Christ Impulse is born in the
inwardness of the Earth. Toward spring it flows out into the cosmos
with the out-breathing of the Earth. It views the star world and
enters into reciprocal action with it, but in such a way that its
relation to the stars is no longer spatial, but temporal, so that the
temporal is withdrawn from the spatial.

Easter is on the first Sunday after the spring full moon. Within the
full out-going breath man rises up with his soul-being into the cosmic
world, permeates and saturates himself with the quality of the stars,
takes in the breath of the cosmos with his earthly breath, thus
permeating himself with the Easter spirit, and by St. John's Day he is
most strongly imbued with that with which he began to permeate himself
at Easter. He must then return to the Earth, with the Earth soul and
his own soul-being, but he depends upon Michael's standing by him, so
that he may penetrate the earthly world in the right way after the
Ahrimanic element has been overcome through the Michael forces.

And ever more and more, with the strength of the indrawn breath, does
the soul-element of the Earth retire into the Earth itself, up to
Christmas time. And today we celebrate Christmas time in the right way
if we say to ourselves: Michael has purified the Earth, so that
the birth of the Christ Impulse can occur at Christmas time in the
right way.

Then the outflowing into the cosmos begins again. In this outflowing
Christ takes Michael with Him, in order that Michael may again gather
to him out of the cosmos those forces which he has used up in his
struggle with the earthly Ahrimanic forces. At Easter time Michael
begins again to immerse himself in the cosmic world, and is most
strongly interwoven with the cosmos at St. John's time.

And a man in the present who comprehends in the right sense what
unites him as man with the earthly, says to himself: The age is
beginning for us in which we see the Christ Impulse aright when we
know that it is accompanied by the force of Michael in the course of
the year; when we see the Christ flowing down into the earthly and
rising up into the cosmos, accompanied by Michael, who at one time is
contending within the earthly, at another gathering strength for the
fight in the cosmic spaces. (See lemniscate)

In the Easter thought we have an image of utmost grandeur which
has been implanted into earth existence in order to bring
enlightenment; namely, the image of Christ arising out of the grave in
victory over Death. We can grasp this Easter thought in the right way
in our time only if we understand that we must add to it today the
Being of Michael, at the right hand of Christ Jesus. For while the
force of the Earth's breath is becoming woven through with the force
of Christ during the breathing process of the Earth in the course of
the year's cycle, Michael accompanies Christ.

If we as Earth men would understand how to make the Christ thought
alive in ourselves at each of the four great festivals of the year,
including Easter, as indeed we must do, we need to be able to place
this thought in the right way and in full consciousness into the
present time. The hope that was focused on the coming of the
Michael force in the service of the Christ force animated those who
understand the Christ Impulse in the right way up to our time.

The obligation arises for us, especially in the modern age, to
permeate ourselves with the Christ Impulse in the sense of the
Michael thought. We do this in the right way when we know how
to link the Resurrection thought with the active Michael
thought which has been implanted into human evolution, in the way
I have often explained.